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Studio Tales

#3
The guy that used to run sound for Kix and was their bass player for the Japan tour has a studio in my area. He's probably nearing 50 and it's in his folks back yard. I *think* he lives on the couch in that studio.

Anyway, carpeted walls, fabric falling off the ceiling. Depending on the day, flies buzzing about.

25 bucks an hour. EASILY one of the best sound engineers we had EVER worked with. Heck you buy him a "fly pie" (pizza from a local sub shop we deemed fly pie after it was attacked in the studio by said creature) It ended up being about 15 per hour.

He is a VERY cool dude and easy to work with, some of the best times I ever had in the studio.

Relax and have a good time.
 
#5
My ABSOLUTE first gig was a studio gig. So i'm pretty acustom to it now. Just alot of sitting around and waiting for others and staying awake. High pressure be right or die playing for like 20 mins but 5-6 hours of joking around and eating chinese food.
 
#10
Rockgurl said:
Only because I've spent many a looooong day in a studio when all of a sudden you realize you are absolutely starving and either you have no money, the ATM doesn't work, or its 3 am and nothing is open. I'm like a girl scout....always prepared! ;)
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That's good advice. This studio is out in the middle of nowhere, so there's no chance of ordering out for pizza or Chinese.
 
#11
Did a live thing in a studio for CD release party and about 20 good friends.

Get the live disc and find that the bass doesn't sound quite right, it's wierdly out of tune. Couldn't tell at the time because we were heavy and doing a drop tuning and all the players had phones on hearing their own instrument the best.

The bass player has his rig in a side hallway miced. Come to find out someone, "we think the engineer," knocked over a can of coke into his rig. The spill went inside his head. Instead of stopping telling him, the culprit cleaned up the outside spill and turned it off and on again. Since it worked I guess he thought it was alright. What this lead to was that the tuner reset. So, when the bass player thought he was tuning down he wasn't.

About a month later his, "brand new this is my baby," head goes south and starts smoking. He send it in since it's under warranty and they say their is sticky substance all over the board most likely coke. Then someone remembers coke can sitting on a shelf by his head and we put two and two together.
 
#15
I've been a studio a few times, never with a band but always as a sideman for some demos for singer/songwriter's type (nothing ever got big...). This meant that we had to work fast (not much money if we were in a pro studio) and I had to say yes to every little thing that was asked from me. No bad experiences per se, but a couple ridiculous stories:

a) Singer who could not sing in key that day asking in frustration if he could just recite the words and the engineer could add the melody later using auto-tune.
b) Guitarist wanting to mike an electric guitar (as in, put a mic near the strings while he played) to give it a more "accoustic" sound.
c) Drummer unwrapping a candy bar between takes and an engineer arguing with him that the crackling noise was hardware related. Stopped for half and hour to check every connection.
d) Singer who stopped everyone (ie. only me) during a take and when everything was silent, the engineer asked "what's up, you good?" in the talkback. At wich point the singer let out the most maginificient fart ever heard by man.
 
#16
#17
Honsetly, the studio is fairly intimedtaing place at first, and our first time was really scary. Our drummer was ****ed off drugs and had no sleep, and i had a throat infection! The engineer kept trying to have sex with his new mixing board and our lead singer was on the phone to his new gf the whole day. Lets just say that nothing come out nice except one angry song. But yeah, the point of my story is that you just need to relax and enjoy it. You will get better with time
 
#18
Honsetly, the studio is fairly intimedtaing place at first, and our first time was really scary. Our drummer was ****ed off drugs and had no sleep, and i had a throat infection! The engineer kept trying to have sex with his new mixing board and our lead singer was on the phone to his new gf the whole day. Lets just say that nothing come out nice except one angry song. But yeah, the point of my story is that you just need to relax and enjoy it. You will get better with time
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Hmm, that must've been hell. I remember the first time I went in the studio, I was very, very nervous and asked a lot of stupid questions (I was around 16). The nervousness eventually fades away but getting there prepared and ready to WORK (studio time is work!) can alleviate 99% of it.

And be prepared to wait. And wait, and wait, so bring a book or an iPod. I once had my track layed down in 15 minutes and waited to do another track (there was a bass break on wich I played a Danelectro) for 3 hours because the engineer was working on the guitar tone and he said he would be ready to record me at "any minute".

Also show up with a good, noiseless instrument. Nothing is more irritating to an engineer than a bass/guitar with scratchy/noisy pots and pickups.
 

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